Thoughts about the service

For some reason, the Psalms as showing intimacy with God are jumping out to me.

This could go a couple of ways:
1. God's recognition of man and woman needing intimacy, needing one another. As seen in Genesis. God looked at Adam alone and thought there was something missing. Looking at Ephesians 5:31 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
I really like working around this one flesh, one personhood of intimacy, and then going into things that break it down...trust, communication, commitment, faith. The turn would be back in Ephesians 5:25-28 Where Paul likens Christ's love for the church to that of a man and woman. There is something supernatural about the way God interacts with us that is similar to the way we should interact with each other.
2. Intimacy requires amazing levels of trust. When trust is broken intimacy is hard to get back.
Communication: When we stop, or the lines seem staticy, we lose something with regards to intimacy. Not talking about bills and the next child event, but sharing in something
Commitment:
3 Another direction could be Song of Solomons, and reading some of the juicy stuff in that book. Then looking at something like the 5 Love Languages and running through those things. The premise of 5 Love Languages is that we all have a "tank" for love that gets filled in different ways. Most people have one primary love language, and one secondary.

The Languages as laid out by Gary Chapman
Quality Time (Focused time together)
Receiving Gifts (presents, cards, flowers)
Physical Touch (Self explanatory...well, not by your self )
Acts of Service (Laundry, cleaning, fixing dinner)
Words of Affirmation

If we did this, we could have people work to identify their "love languages".

Nicole and I have been wanting to do this series with Children, Youth and Parents because there are books for each age group. This could be a good tie in to start this study when Wednesday night restarts in several weeks.

I like it. I think the love languages would be really good. Maybe do a mini-quiz or something?

I very much think of this as intimacy with God, and not so much as with other people. I see intimacy with God as primary and intimacy with others as secondary... of course I am the unwed worship leader... so I could have a bias viewpoint.

Is there a way to incorporate both?

Especially if we're comparing our ideal relationships with other people (significant others or even just intimate friendships in our lives) to our relationship with God.

I think we seek intimacy with other people for the wrong reasons, and when we can't find that perfect intimate relationship on earth, we turn to more and more unhealthy relationships hoping to fulfill that void that really only God can provide.

Soooo - we focus on God and our relationship with Him

But for the tangible here on earth we look at how to improve the relationships we have here and make them more Godly. One way to do this is to figure out what our love language is. I did the Love Languages thing when I was single and I found it was a really interesting way to learn more about myself even as a friend/daughter/sister/etc in all my relationships in life. I learned what I need and how to clearly communicate that, and I also learned some pitfalls I might face and how to be aware and avoid that.

Maybe this is all too much in one week... eek!

I like the love languages and agree that intimacy is firstly important with God and others second. You can't be truly intimate with others until you find it with God. Intimacy can be more than between a man and woman, but can be just as strong in friends, family, etc. We need to show that it's not just the Adam and Eve thing, although that was a good idea about realizing they needed more.

I agree with Cindy's balanced take on the whole bit. I also like the love languages. I wish we had time to pull off a drama, because I am sure that could be a good one...

I'm also trying to consider the soul craving video, which is clearly dealing with people/people intimacy. I do feel like we need to tie in the intimacy with God part. Although I didn't describe it well, I think that going with the Ephesians scripture opens a couple different ways to move with both. I don't want to be Dr. Phil, and that's what Love Languages is. There really isn't a biblical tie in to the reasoning there. BUT, the answer in all of these soul cravings is God. Part of how I was considering "turning" the message was to take the ways we relate in our own intimacy and tie it into the fact that we also have to be willing to commit that kind of attention in our intimacy with God to be it's best. Might ask the question...What is God's Love Language? Not that He needs His tank filled, or anything from us, but what seems to please Him is "faithfulness and quality time." Measures in our life that show He is the priority. This is long and random. If you want to comment a part, please highlight, copy and use the quote options so I know what you are talking about.